U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Nominee Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia) testifies during his confirmation hearing Jan. 17, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee hammered away at Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia), questioning his ethics, his thoughts on Medicare innovation and apparent plans to turn Medicaid into a block-grant program.
Monday, Price fielded questions for nearly four hours — though, like any good politician, he dodged quite a few inquiries, particularly from Democrats. In the end, though, it seems like he will clear the committee, probably along strict party lines. Republicans hold the majority on the panel and in the Senate. Price had faced the Senate Health, Education, Welfare and Labor Committee last week.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) was rather relentless in questioning Price.
Wyden started by hitting Price over a private placement the latter was in on in 2015 for an Australian biotech firm called Innate Immunotherapeutics. Price reportedly has realized a 400 percent gain on that investment.
“He has said he was unaware he paid a price below market value. It is hard to see how this claim passes the smell test,” Wyden said, citing public filings by Innate Immunotherapeutics.
Wyden said that Price omitted some information from his financial disclosure statement.
“He disclosed owning less than $50,000 of Innate stock. At the time the disclosure was filed, by my calculation, his shares had a value of more than $250,000. Today, his stake is valued at more than a half million dollars,” Wyden said. “Based on the math, it appears that the private placement was excluded entirely from the congressman’s financial disclosure.”
Price defended his actions. “Reality is that everything i did was ethical, above board, legal and transparent. The reason that you know about these things is because we have made that information available in real time, as required by the House Ethics Committee,” he said.
The two had several testy exhanges, where Wyden accused Price of ducking questions and Price reiterated his commitment to patients.
Wyden was relentless, particularly when it came to the Empowering Patients First Act — Price’s longtime alternative to the Affordable Care Act — and the Trump administration’s lack of a coherent replacement for the ACA so far. Price responded, as he has in previous public statements, that he wants to put patients and physicians, not bureaucrats, in charge of care decisions.
Wyden said:
The Price plan takes America back to the dark days when had healthcare was for the healthy and the wealthy. … There is a big gap between the Trump pledge of insurance for everybody and great healthcare and the congressman’s proposals. In another bill, the Empowering Patients First Act, the congressman brings back discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions such as pregnancy or heart disease. … It gutted the tax benefits that helped working people afford high-quality coverage. It slashed minimum standards that protect patients by defining exactly what health plans have to cover. All this from a bill called empowering patients first. I’ve seen a lot of bills with ironic titles, this one, colleagues, takes the cake.
Wyden also criticized Price for apparently wanting to turn Medicare into a voucher program and for restructuring Medicaid as block grants to states.
“The congressman says patients should be at the center of care. I agree with that. When I look, however, at the congressman’s proposals, I don’t see the patient at the center of healthcare. I see money and i see special interests at the center of healthcare,” he said.
Republicans had Price’s back. “I feel like I’ve been asked to be a character witness in a felony trial in a sentencing face of a conviction,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia), who added that he is a patient at Price’s former orthopedics practice outside Atlanta.
Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) queried Price on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, an entity set up and funded by the Affordable Care Act. Price sounded like he wants to make changes.
“CMMI has gotten off track a bit. I think what it has done is defined areas where it is mandatorily dictating to physicians and other providers in this country in certain areas how they must practice,” Price said. “[I’m a] strong supporter of innovation. [I] hope that we can move CMMI in a direction that actually makes sense for patients.”
Price often repeated a mantra such as: “Our commitment is to make certain that every single American has access to the highest quality coverage and care possible.”
Neither he nor members of the Senate committee got much into how to improve the quality of care in America, however.
Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
